"Google's Chromebook was dismissed as a bare-bones laptop with limited appeal when it debuted two years ago. Now it's defying skeptics and gaining share as the rest of the personal-computer market shrinks. Chromebooks have in just the past eight months snagged 20 percent to 25 percent of the U.S. market for laptops that cost less than $300, according to NPD Group Inc. The devices, which have a full keyboard and get regular software updates from Google, are the fastest-growing part of the PC industry based on price, NPD said."

The problem with competing on price is that once Microsoft lowers their prices, their value proposition evaporates. Look at Linux Netbooks for a refresher.

I think people you're forgetting that it's a different market compared to a little over 5 years, Microsoft's stranglehold on the OEMs has gotten very loose. When the netbooks with Linux arrived on the market the reason they used Linux was that Vista was such a resource hog. Windows XP wasn't being sold anymore until Microsoft reacted to the Netbook's popularity so they offered XP again for the netbooks and suddenly most netbooks sold in North America was Windows only.

Today, Windows is able to run on the hardware the chromebook uses yet these devices are shipping with Chrome OS.

We also see that OEMs are proposing laptops that dual boot Windows 8 and Android, something we would not have seen 10 years ago. I'm thinking of BEOS that was supposed to be shipped in dual boot on some Toshiba laptops until Microsoft objected.

Of course, Microsoft recently became a hardware manufacturer when they started to sell Surface tablets putting them in competition with their partners. This was probably a major wake up call for OEMs to diversify away from Microsoft which is why they are committing to the ChromeOS and Android. Just look at the way they stabbed their partners in the MP3 player markey when they offered the Zune. The OEMs need only to see that to realize that their partner could pull a fast one on them at any time.

Microsoft could give copies of Windows 8 to the OEMs, they're not going to stop the ChromeOS. If these devices sell well, the companies making them are not going to be stopped by Microsoft this time.